


We're Gonna Live

by argentConflagration



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Mostly Fluff, Non-Sgrub AU, slightly plotty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-19
Updated: 2013-03-19
Packaged: 2017-12-05 19:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/726826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentConflagration/pseuds/argentConflagration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's known him for sweeps without meeting in person, without even knowing the color of his blood. She'll change that tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're Gonna Live

**Author's Note:**

  * For [covertCalligrapher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/covertCalligrapher/gifts).



GC: TON1GHTS TH3 N1GHT, R1GHT? >:]  
CG: WHAT NIGHT, THERE IS NO NIGHT.  
GC: OH, COM3 ON, K4RK4T! TH3 N1GHT YOUR3 GO1NG TO F1N4LLY COM3 V1S1T M3, L1K3 YOU S41D YOU WOULD!  
CG: I NEVER SAID THAT, YOU’RE DISTORTING WHAT I MEANT.  
GC: BUT YOUR3 GO1NG TO COM3 4NYW4Y, R1GHT? >:D  
GC: B3C4US3 YOU LOV3 M3 SO MUCH  
CG: I’M NOT GOING!  
GC: COM3 ON, 1LL 3V3N W4TCH YOUR STUP1D MOV13S W1TH YOU  
GC: 1 B3T NO ON3 3LS3 1S W1LL1NG TO DO TH4T W1TH YOU!  
CG: FUCK YOU.  
CG: AND ERIDAN USED TO LET ME WATCH THEM WITH HIM BEFORE HE DECIDED TO BECOME A STUCK-UP HIGH AND MIGHTY ROYAL AND HAD A SUPPORT ROD PERMANENTLY INSTALLED UP HIS WASTE CHUTE.  
GC: 1S TH1S 4BOUT YOUR STUP1D BLOOD TH1NG?  
CG: WHAT, NO, THIS ISN’T ABOUT MY BLOOD!  
GC: OH, 1T 1SNT? 1S TH4T WHY YOUV3 N3V3R V1S1T3D 4NY OF US? K4RK4T, WH4T 4R3 YOU GO1NG TO DO WH3N YOU TURN 10? YOU C4NT H1D3 YOUR BLOOD COLOR FOR3V3R!  
CG: IT’S NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!  
CG: AND I’D REALLY FUCKING APPRECIATE YOU KEEPING YOUR MANIC SNIFFNODES TO YOURSELF ABOUT IT.  
GC: K4RK4T, YOUR3 GO1NG TO G3T YOURS3LF CULL3D  
GC: 1 DONT KNOW WHY 1 3V3N BOTH3R W1TH YOU!  
GC: YOU KNOW WH3R3 MY H1V3 1S, 1LL 3XP3CT YOU 4T S3V3N, 4ND 1F YOU DONT COM3 TH3N M4YB3 1 SHOULD JUST STOP TRY1NG TO B3 N1C3 TO YOU!

—gallowsCalibrator ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist—

CG: I SAID I WASN’T COMING!  
CG: DAMN IT!

—carcinoGeneticist ceased trolling gallowsCalibrator—

—-

The time is 7:10, and you are disappointed. That’s the word. Disappointed. Anything more would be an exaggeration. He never actually said he would come, after all. You tie a rope around the neck of a red and black scalemate and crawl out on a branch to add to your collection of plush victims. You don’t hang scalemates much anymore, since you’re really too old to be acting so childishly, but tonight you just really feel like it. You take a sniff and pretend that you can watch the soothing swinging motion like you used to. 

“Hey, asshole!”

You’re so startled you almost fall off the branch. You climb back in through the window and scramble to let down the elevator. You recognize the voice; it has to be him. 

When you’ve brought the elevator to the top, you tell him, “You’re late, idiot!” and pull him into a hug, letting yourself take a good long sniff. 

You can’t quite make out the color under the skin before he pushes you away, saying “I didn’t give you permission to grab me!” Regardless, you grab his hand and drag him into your hive. 

You think he must have grown and changed a lot since the last time he showed you his face on video chat. Or maybe it’s just different seeing him in person.

“Right! You were promised a movie, and you shall have your movie! What will we be watching?”

He pulls out an older film from his sylladex—you’ve heard of it, but never seen it. He’s probably seen it twenty times. It hits him that you don’t have a television. 

“Terezi, how the fuck are we supposed to watch a movie without a television?”

“Oh come on, you dope. I’ll just set up my computer on this table and we can huddle together. You’ll be able to see the screen and I’ll be able to smell it. It’ll be fine.”

You go into the meal preparation block to make grubcorn while he sets things up. Even though he’s got three inches on you, there’s still something about him that seems small and vulnerable. 

You have to scrunch together on the couch to get a good angle at the screen. (That’s what you tell him. You could be sniffing at ninety degrees to the screen and it wouldn’t matter much to you.) He’s warmer than anyone you’ve ever been around, although maybe it’s just the fact that the entire side of your body is flush with his.

The movie is some comedy about a highblood commander in the army and the struggles her lowblood moirail overcomes to be with her. Even you can tell it’s cliche. You’re many times more interested in the boy sitting next to you. Only ever having met with him through Trollian means you’ve never observed him when he’s not talking, so maybe that explains why he’s so much calmer than you thought he’d ever be. 

During a lull in the action, you ask him, “Hey Karkat, what color’s your blood?”

He tenses. “Fuck off.”

You trace a finger along the gray symbol on his chest for a few seconds before he bats you away. “I won’t tell anyone else,” you say. “I just want you to be able to trust me with your secrets.”

He gives you a long, hard look, staring right through you, staring at a lot of things beyond your eyes. “Are we … a thing?”

“Well, Karkat, have we decided on red or black or both or neither? What kind of a thing do you want to be?” You’ve been dancing around quadrants for ages it seems, never sure of how he feels. In the back of your head you know you need to put him in one box or the other and start looking for another concupiscent partner soon, or forget about him entirely.

He’s still contemplating you, analyzing you. “Fuck it, that doesn’t even matter.”

“It matters to me!” you say automatically. “You’re always jerking me around like this, Karkat, and I don’t know why I thought bringing you to my hive would make things any different!”

“That’s not what I meant, damn it! Do you even know how long I’ve been trying to get rid of you? I’m not going to live past ten sweeps anyway, so why don’t you stay in your little self-consistent world where the hemospectrum is the law and the law is your god and stop wasting your time on me!”

You freeze. “Back the fuck up right now, Karkat, and tell me why you just said you’re not going to live past ten sweeps.”

He’s pitifully nervous, and his shaking is only half from all the shouting. “It’s my fucking blood, Terezi. I’m bright red—not on the hemospectrum. They’re going to cull me and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it!” His voice drops to a whisper, and it’s bitter. “You wanted to know my secret? Here it fucking is.”

“No!” That’s all you can say. “No, Karkat, no, you’re not going to die, I’d miss you too much! I’m sure there’s a way to get out of it, some loophole in culling law!”

“There isn’t. You can’t fill pails with mutant red and when you can’t fill pails you die. And you know what part I hate the fucking most? I didn’t even spend eight happy sweeps, knowing it was all I’d get! I’ve wasted every fucking second of my life being miserable, because past me is a superdense cosmic singularity of pure shit, and you know what? I think I deserve to get culled!” He goes to stand up, and you have no idea where he’s going, but you grab him around the shoulders and pull him back down and hold onto him more tightly than you used to hold your scalemates when you were one and didn’t understand why your lusus wouldn’t answer you. 

“No, Karkat, we’ll run away together! I know what you’re going to say and I don’t care! Fuck the hemospectrum, fuck pails, fuck the law, fuck everything, I just don’t want you to die!” You’re more than leaning against him now, and there’s no way to hide the tears on your face. “I love you, Karkat. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I’ll do whatever I have to for you to survive.”

He doesn’t say anything to that, just puts his arms around you in return, and you’re like that for a while.

“Everything’s going to be fine. I’m not really sure how, but it is.” You breathe, shallow. “Does Sollux know about it? He might be able to find a way of getting you out of the Empire’s databases.” 

“You’re the only one I’ve told. You have to keep this a secret, Terezi, I shouldn’t have told you.”

“Of course I’ll keep it a secret! I’m not trying to hurt you!”

He closes his eyes against your shoulder, and you can tell that he’s trying to slow his breathing. “I know. I’m sorry. For not trusting you, too.”

“But you trust me now?”

He nods, and you kiss him. You press into his mouth and taste bright, delicious mutant red close to the surface. You have wanted to kiss Karkat Vantas for a very long time. 

You’re in his lap before you realize it, demanding more from him, and more, as if you can get so close to him that no one will ever be able to take him away. He reciprocates with a tired enthusiasm, and you’re sure this would be the best experience of your life if you didn’t feel like you were hanging onto his life by a thread. 

You let your tears dry against his shoulder, and whisper, “you deserve to live, and I’m going to make you happy.”

You kiss him until he smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally submitted to covertCalligrapher, who asked for non-SGRUB AU Karezi.


End file.
